Matthieu Ladagnous completed a perfect day for FDJ – with Yauheni Hutarovich winning the Coppa Bernocchi – by taking the third stage of the Tour du Limousin, between Lanouaille and Saint Yrieix La Perche. The 26-year-old took his first victory of the season, ahead of Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis) and Jérémie Galland (Saur-Sojasun) at the end of the 181.1km stage.

After a flurry of attempted breakaways Laszlo Bodrogi (Team Type 1-Sanofi-Aventis) and Frédéric Guesdon (FDJ) got away at the 20km point. The FDJ team was controlling the peloton, and was quite happy to allow its member to open up a lead, and by the mid point of the stage the duo were 4’20” ahead.

At that point the Vacansoleil-DCM team of race leader Björn Leukemans began the chase of the two fugitives and, with 7km to go and with the lead below three minutes, a counterattacking group formed. The group, made up of Anthony Geslin, Pierrick Fedrigo, Matthieu Ladagnous (all FDJ), Johnny Hoogerland Leukemans (both Vacansoleil-DCM), Ben Gastauer (AG2R La Mondiale) and Egoitz Garcia (Caja Rural), closed to within 25 seconds of the leaders with 63km to go. The peloton was in no mood to let Leukemans get away though and it was all brought together a few kilometres later.

The new quintet’s lead steadily grew to more than a minute and on the climb of the Côte des Cars, which topped out at 23km to go, Kadri attacked and tried to get away on his own. With 10km to go, the AG2R La Mondiale rider was 1’10” clear of the peloton, which had caught the other four riders, but the FDJ team was on the front with Cofidis; steadily they were pulling the lone rider back.

With just 5km to go Julien Simon (Saur-Sojasun) and Arnaud Gérard (FDJ) countered, and caught up with Kadri, but the peloton was all together at the 4km point. Ladagnous and Dumoulin approached the line side by side, and the FDJ rider managed to take his first victory since the Polymormande in August 2009.

After his brief appearance in the mid-stage counterattack, Leukemans finished safely in the peloton, holding onto his leader’s jersey by 9 seconds over Florian Guillou (Bretagne-Schuller), with bonus seconds lifting Ladagnous into third at 13 seconds.